Through it all, the compact Irishman chatted amicably, dismissing the storm as ambient noise as he tackled the task at hand.

It seemed fitting.

McIlroy, who lost his No. 1 world ranking to Tiger Woods just two weeks ago, is in San Antonio to continue to hone his mercurial game as he eyes winning a third major championship next week at the Masters. He does so even as distractions and headlines have followed him, on and off the course, this year.

“I think what we're dealing with and what's going on in my life now is new to everyone around me, and it's a learning experience, and it's a learning curve, and you learn every day,” said McIlroy, 23. “If we weren't learning and we weren't making mistakes, then there would be something wrong.

“I'm very happy with everything that's going on around me.”

This week, playing at a torturous, par-72 AT&T Oaks Course that has proven to be a nightmare for inconsistent players in recent years, McIlroy will attempt to regain the form that made him a superstar.

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He'll be the centerpiece attraction Thursday when the $6.2 million Texas Open, part of the FedEx Cup points chase, begins play with arguably the deepest field on hand in at least two decades.

McIlroy, the highest-ranked player to compete in San Antonio since the introduction of the Official World Golf Rankings in 1986, joins luminaries such as Jim Furyk, Ian Poulter, Matt Kuchar, Retief Goosen and Padraig Harrington in a 156-man field vying for the $1.12 million title.

Also at stake for the 137 players in the field who have not already secured a berth in the Masters is a trip to Augusta National Golf Club with a win Sunday.

McIlroy, of course, will head east regardless of his finish in San Antonio this week. He's hoping, however, that he'll make the journey with a huge infusion of confidence.

“I don't care if I miss 10 cuts in a row if I win a major a year,” he said. “I don't care. I mean, that's what it's all about is winning the big tournaments. Of course, it's not going to be great for your confidence going into those majors if you're missing 10 cuts in a row.”

He comes in only nine months after stunning the golf world by winning the PGA Championship by a record eight shots, the exclamation point to a remarkable rise that saw him claim the No. 1 world ranking and win three more tournaments afterward.

He has won a U.S. Open, posting a record score along the way, and has claimed headlines with his unflagging, boyish charm, relationship with tennis megastar Caroline Wozniacki and recent multimillion-dollar equipment deal with Nike.

He tees it up at the 7,435-yard AT&T Oaks layout in a relative skid, however. He missed the cut at Abu Dhabi and lost in the first round of the Accenture World Match Play Championship before enduring a rare public scathing when he quit, his scorecard littered with bogeys or worse, after 27 holes of the Honda Classic.

McIlroy tied for 45th at last week's Houston Open and made a decision during that tournament to postpone a charity trip to Haiti in order to right his listing game with more work in San Antonio.

“If you think he's trying to regain his stroke, he won the last major we played,” said fellow Irishman Padraig Harrington, defending McIlroy. “That says he's a man in current form. It's only the media that thinks that golfers can peak every week.

“The fact of the matter is, if you peak, it's impossible to peak all the time. All Rory has to worry about is peaking the right weeks, and his game is plenty good enough as he's shown. When he does peak, he can lap fields.”